COYOTE CANYON, N.M. – With the groundbreaking of the $7 million Beacon Bisti Lateral Water Project, Rita Capitan envisions a brighter future for her community.
“We have been meeting on this for several years now,” said Capitan, president of the Crownpoint Chapter. “I remember calling and deciding on our organization’s name, and that’s where we came up with Beacon Bisti.”
Communities from Coyote Canyon to Crownpoint and Lake Valley gathered here Oct. 25 for the 46-mile water pipeline’s groundbreaking.
It included a traditional blessing ceremony led by cultural healer Richard Anderson, Sr.
He said community voices are important in leadership. He said the new pipeline had been ceremonially honored with leadership songs, white cornmeal, and corn pollen.
“This bundle is attached to the water line,” he said.
When completed by the Navajo Engineering and Construction Authority, the water project known as BBN9 will bring clean water to about 6,800 Diné residents who live in Coyote Canyon, Tse’ii’ah, Nahodishgish, Crownpoint, Little Water, Becenti, White Rock and Lake Valley.
The Beacon Bisti Lateral is part of the larger Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project. The project is a collaboration led by the Bureau of Reclamation with the Navajo Nation, the Jicarilla Apache Nation and the City of Gallup.
“It is an exciting time for chapters to receive these new water infrastructure projects,” Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said. “These communities now have the potential to grow and develop in line with sustainable models. I encourage all of our people to participate in the chapters’ planning efforts to maximize access to water.”
President Nygren said the project would not have been possible without the dedication of past leadership. Thanks to support from community consent and contractors Souder Miller, NECA, NTUA and IHS, the $7 million pipeline project will soon be a reality.
“The Navajo Department of Water Resources’ work to secure our water rights and bring water to our communities is already transforming lives,” he said.
At the signing ceremony near Pumping Plant 7 in Coyote Canyon, Bart Deming, construction engineer with the Bureau of Reclamation’s Interior Region 7 – Upper Colorado Basin, acknowledged the significance of the project.
“Water is life,” Deming said. “It is vital to everything that we do. It is long overdue for the Navajo people to have clean, reliable, sustainable drinking water.”
